Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
Browse the NASA APOD archive without needing the exact date first. Filter by media type and keep moving deeper into older images and videos.
Time Spiral
What's happened since the universe started? The time spiral shown here features a few notable highlights . At the spiral's center is the Big Bang , the place where time , as we…
Earthrise: A Video Reconstruction
About 12 seconds into this video, something unusual happens. The Earth begins to rise. Never seen by humans before, the rise of the Earth over the limb of the Moon occurred about…
A Solstice Moon
Rising opposite the setting Sun, June's Full Moon occurred within about 28 hours of the solstice. The Moon stays close to the Sun's path along the ecliptic plane and so while the…
Comet 13P/Olbers
Not a paradox, Comet 13P/Olbers is returning to the inner Solar System after 68 years. The periodic, Halley-type comet will reach its next perihelion or closest approach to the…
Protostellar Outflows in Serpens
Jets of material blasting from newborn stars, are captured in this James Webb Space Telescope close-up of the Serpens Nebula. The powerful protostellar outflows are bipolar, twin…
Timelapse: Aurora, SAR, and the Milky Way
What's happening in the sky this unusual night? Most striking in the featured 4.5-hour 360-degree panoramic video, perhaps, is the pink and purple aurora. That's because this…
The Dark Doodad Nebula
What is that strange brown ribbon on the sky? When observing the star cluster NGC 4372 , observers frequently take note of an unusual dark streak nearby running about three…
JADES-GS-z14-0: A New Farthest Object
What if we could see back to the beginning of the universe? We could see galaxies forming. But what did galaxies look like back then? These questions took a step forward recently…
The Colors of Saturn from Cassini
What creates Saturn's colors? The featured picture of Saturn only slightly exaggerates what a human would see if hovering close to the giant ringed world. The image was taken in…
Lynds Dark Nebula 1251
Stars are forming in Lynds Dark Nebula (LDN) About 1,000 light-years away and drifting above the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, LDN 1251 is also less appetizingly known as "The…
Hubble's NGC 1546
Returning to science operations on June 14, the Hubble Space Telescope used its new pointing mode to capture this sharp image of spiral galaxy NGC 1546 . A member of the Dorado…
Sandy and the Moon Halo
Last April's Full Moon shines through high clouds near the horizon, casting shadows in this garden-at-night skyscape. Along with canine sentinel Sandy watching the garden gate,…
NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara
Do dragons fight on the altar of the sky? Although it might appear that way, these dragons are illusions made of thin gas and dust. The emission nebula NGC 6188, home to the…
Gigantic Jets over Himalayan Mountains
Yes, but can your thunderstorm do this? Pictured here are gigantic jets shooting up from a thunderstorm last week toward the Himalayan Mountains in China and Bhutan . The…
Ou4: The Giant Squid Nebula
Squids on Earth aren't this big. This mysterious squid-like cosmic cloud spans nearly three full moon s on planet Earth's sky. Discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas…
Animation: Black Hole Destroys Star
What happens if a star gets too close to a black hole? The black hole can rip it apart -- but how? It's not the high gravitational attraction itself that's the problem -- it's the…
Prominences and Filaments on the Active Sun
This colorized and digitally sharpened image of the Sun is composed of frames recording emission from hydrogen atoms in the solar chromosphere on May 15. Approaching the maximum…
RCW 85
From the 1960 astronomical catalog of Rodgers, Campbell and Whiteoak, emission region RCW 85 shines in southern night skies between bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri. About…
Messier 66 Close Up
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 66 lies a mere 35 million light-years away. The gorgeous island universe is about 100 thousand light-years across, similar in size to the…
Aurora over Karkonosze Mountains
It was the first time ever. At least, the first time this photographer had ever seen aurora from his home mountains. And what a spectacular aurora it was. The Karkonosze Mountains…
Colorful Stars and Clouds near Rho Ophiuchi
Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so colorful, yet dusty? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust -- illuminated by starlight -- produces…
Sh2-132: The Lion Nebula
Is the Lion Nebula the real ruler of the constellation Cepheus ? This powerful feline appearing nebula is powered by two massive stars , each with a mass over 20 times greater…
How to Identify that Light in the Sky
What is that light in the sky? The answer to one of humanity's more common questions may emerge from a few quick observations. For example -- is it moving or blinking? If so, and…
Pandora's Cluster of Galaxies
This deep field mosaicked image presents a stunning view of galaxy cluster Abell 2744 recorded by the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam. Also dubbed Pandora's Cluster, Abell…
Viewing discoveries from 1 July 2024 through 8 June 2024.